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What are your favorite podcasts?

pjk

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I've been an avid podcast listener for several years, and find them incredibly valuable. I see them as a more modern means of learning, almost like a book. I tend to listen to at least one or two a day. Some have been remarkable. Yesterday I listened to this interview with Drew Houston, he created Dropbox. It's a pretty good interview with some good stories and advice. My favorite podcasts are:
  • Waking Up by Sam Harris - On philosophy/science/critical thinking
  • The Tim Ferriss Show - on world class performers
  • Joe Rogan (I pick episodes of people I'm interested in) - on everything, haha
  • Philosophize This - Great philosophy
  • Smart Drug Smarts - on the brain and nootropics
  • Dan Carin's Hardcore History - incredible history
  • Trend Following by Michael Covel - general
  • Freakonomics Radio - author of the book Freakonomics
  • Conversations with Tyler Cowen - excellent guests, great questions
Does anyone else enjoy daily podcasts? What are your favorites?
 

AvGalen

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Thanks for your list pjk. Just copying over post here for clarity
My main source for tech-podcasts is https://twit.tv/. They have a weekly show on Google, Apple and Microsoft, a general show and a fun show (and sometimes the specials or enterprise/security/law related ones). Because my work is mostly Microsoft related I also follow the podcasts from Windows Central and Brad Sams and I have followed Andrew Zarian for a long time. There is quite a bit of overlap between these podcasts but I like to here different perspectives. And this one is not a podcast but just some fun entertainment during lunch https://www.youtube.com/user/FrontPageTech (Also Mrwhosetheboss and Marques Brownlee)
 
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lucarubik

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Linus has a weekly tech podcast aswell, i think its pretty informative but i can't compare really.
I think Joe's gets old really quick between MMA and Jordan peterson like talks, but the ones with joey diaz are gold, pure entertainment
I had a bad experience with sam's, i decided not to give it another try and risk another 2 hour determinism and/or islam talk, but the guy is a beast.
 
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pjk

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Linus has a weekly tech podcast aswell, i think its pretty informative but i can't compare really.
I think Joe's gets old really quick between MMA and Jordan peterson like talks, but the ones with joey diaz are gold, pure entertainment
I had a bad experience with sam's, i decided not to give it another try and risk another 2 hour determinism and/or islam talk, but the guy is a beast.
Joe can get old, hence why I only listen to ones with people I find interesting or topics. The one with Mathew Walker on sleep was gold.

Sam lately has gotten worse, but his earlier stuff was excellent I thought. It can get redundant with his determinism and Islam stuff if you listen regularly, and I think he knows that now. I also don't like his politics stuff - I'd prefer more philosophy and science stuff. Steve Pinker is remarkable - his "Enlightenment Now" book I really found good. Have you read any of Sam's books? All of them are great, but "Waking Up" was super fascinating.
 
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lucarubik

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im way too young to be reading philosophy books :3
i've considered it recently but reading a book can be slow
If i reconsider ill remember the suggestion
oh woops just noticed this comment can be sort of insulting lol you old men and your philosophy books
ill leave it as is tho
 

pjk

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im way too young to be reading philosophy books :3
i've considered it recently but reading a book can be slow
If i reconsider ill remember the suggestion
oh woops just noticed this comment can be sort of insulting lol you old men and your philosophy books
ill leave it as is tho
How old are you? It's never too young to start if you're interested in that sort of stuff. In fact, I'd say the earlier the better. The fact that you've listened to Sam's podcast probably means you're old enough to get something out of philosophy. Sam's book "Lying" is a good one start with if you haven't read it yet.

It's not insulting at all, haha. I'm 29 but have been reading philosophy for at least 10 years now.
 
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lucarubik

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How old are you? It's never too young to start if you're interested in that sort of stuff. In fact, I'd say the earlier the better. The fact that you've listened to Sam's podcast probably means you're old enough to get something out of philosophy. Sam's book "Lying" is a good one start with if you haven't read it yet.

It's not insulting at all, haha. I'm 29 but have been reading philosophy for at least 10 years now.
nah age is not a problem i was just joking, hell im old enough to do anything, sigh
and i agree a lot of grown up people that would never call a cat "dog" or say that ravens are blue often make huge mistakes about ethics or mathematics or any logic based decision. I personally had a really useless 1 year of history of philosophy class during my obligatory education. anyone could improve their lives by learning something about "reasoning" or just with raw practice.
But i read really really slowly xd
 
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lucarubik

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talking about podcasts this got into my recomended in youtube lol
I kinda like adam, but i can't stand most of his guests. they say "yknow what im saying" and "like" way too much, and i am sayin this of all people. Still an interesting look into "black culture" for someone that hasn't been to the US.
His vlogs are better anyway, i just saw the video and remembered this thread.
 

VDel_234_

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i enjoy cubing podcasts. the current podcasts i listen to are the Dlsone podcast (With DGCubes and others) and Kit Clement and Andrew Nathanson's (colorful pockets) Layer by Layer podcast. both are very different from one another.
 

stoic

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Thanks for the post pjk, I love podcasts and always looking for new stuff.
Apart from Smart Drug Smarts and Trend Following (which I don't know but will check out), all your other recommendations I can second as they're in my feed already! I also cherry pick quite heavily from Ferriss and Rogan.

Some I also like:
-Henry and Heidi (punk singer Henry Rollins telling stories about his experiences, often very funny)
-Planet Money (not unlike Freakonomics I guess, but shorter - real world stories)
-Cody Willard (US investor with his own take on the markets and geopolitics)
-Serial (long-form investigation into a real-life crime; quite groundbreaking)
-Skeptoid (busting myths)
-How I Built This (stories about entrepreneurs building big companies; one with the two guys who built a yoghurt company is particularly inspiring)
-Song Exploder (big name artists break down songs and explain the creative process)
-Very Bad Wizards (I had to include some philosophy, right?)

Lastly, anyone else speed their podcast player up to shoehorn more content into their brain faster? I listen to everything at 1.5x, and it's surprising how quickly you get used to it. (*doesn't work for Song Exploder)
 
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pjk

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Thanks for the post pjk, I love podcasts and always looking for new stuff.
Apart from Smart Drug Smarts and Trend Following (which I don't know but will check out), all your other recommendations I can second as they're in my feed already! I also cherry pick quite heavily from Ferriss and Rogan.

Some I also like:
-Henry and Heidi (punk singer Henry Rollins telling stories about his experiences, often very funny)
-Planet Money (not unlike Freakonomics I guess, but shorter - real world stories)
-Cody Willard (US investor with his own take on the markets and geopolitics)
-Serial (long-form investigation into a real-life crime; quite groundbreaking)
-Skeptoid (busting myths)
-How I Built This (stories about entrepreneurs building big companies; one with the two guys who built a yoghurt company is particularly inspiring)
-Song Exploder (big name artists break down songs and explain the creative process)
-Very Bad Wizards (I had to include some philosophy, right?)

Lastly, anyone else speed their podcast player up to shoehorn more content into their brain faster? I listen to everything at 1.5x, and it's surprising how quickly you get used to it. (*doesn't work for Song Exploder)
Good recommendations - I also listen to Planet Money and How I Built This, and have listened to a couple episodes of Very Bad Wizards. I've heard of Serial but not yet listened to it. In terms of podcasts, solid list. Now we need to discuss the best episodes. I've built a site similar to Goodreads but for podcast episodes, though it is buggy and not ready for release. I want to find a list of the best episodes of each podcast. Can you recommend some of your more favorite episodes from your list above? Cheers!
 

stoic

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Ooh best episodes? OK, not an easy question but I'll see what I can do!

-Henry and Heidi - Petshop, Mr Pepperman, Lollapalooza, Shatner, Hubert Selby Jr. Although he's such a good raconteur I could listen to him talk about almost anything and I don't think there's a bad episode.
-Planet Money - LeBron James, fake review hunter, XXX-XX-XXXX, vodka proof, blue pallet stood out recently.
-Cody Willard - (hard to recommend episodes as it's mostly topical and until recently he's mostly been posting audio from Periscope/YouTube and conference calls)
-Serial - Has to be listened to like an audiobook but first season is way better than second season.
-Skeptoid - also hard to recommend as all but the last 50 or so are behind a paywall meaning episodes are continuously dropping off; of the most recent ones Are you living in a simulation?, Numerology, Clever Hans and the two on alcohol myths were pretty good.
-How I Built This - Spanx, Instagram, Airbnb, Samuel Adams, Southwest Airlines, Kate Spade. (NB has a very annoying habit of regularly re-listing old episodes and clogging up the feed.) Stonyfield Yogurt is the one I mentioned above.
-Song Exploder - this is going to be very variable, depending on what artists you like. REM, Nine Inch Nails, Slowdive, Björk, Metallica and Iggy Pop are the only ones I've listened to recently. Although I've just downloaded a couple more as I was scrolling through the list here!
-Very Bad Wizards - Dystopias, The Absurd, Killer robots and there are a couple with Sam Harris which were good. I haven't listened to as many of these as I should though.

And, very quickly, just a couple which stand out from your list:

-Tim Ferriss - Rick Rubin, Jocko Willink, Ray Dalio, Stewart Copeland, Arnold Schwarznegger, Josh Waitzkin
-Philosophize This - Sartre & Camus, Hegel's God, Descartes, Leibniz, Montaigne. But listen to them all, really. (*needs more stoicism though...)

Oh, and I haven't tried it but I have had people recommend Listen Notes to me. Not sure if it's anything like you're attempting?
OK for now; cheers.
 
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pjk

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Ooh best episodes? OK, not an easy question but I'll see what I can do!

-Henry and Heidi - Petshop, Mr Pepperman, Lollapalooza, Shatner, Hubert Selby Jr. Although he's such a good raconteur I could listen to him talk about almost anything and I don't think there's a bad episode.
-Planet Money - LeBron James, fake review hunter, XXX-XX-XXXX, vodka proof, blue pallet stood out recently.
-Cody Willard - (hard to recommend episodes as it's mostly topical and until recently he's mostly been posting audio from Periscope/YouTube and conference calls)
-Serial - Has to be listened to like an audiobook but first season is way better than second season.
-Skeptoid - also hard to recommend as all but the last 50 or so are behind a paywall meaning episodes are continuously dropping off; of the most recent ones Are you living in a simulation?, Numerology, Clever Hans and the two on alcohol myths were pretty good.
-How I Built This - Spanx, Instagram, Airbnb, Samuel Adams, Southwest Airlines, Kate Spade. (NB has a very annoying habit of regularly re-listing old episodes and clogging up the feed.) Stonyfield Yogurt is the one I mentioned above.
-Song Exploder - this is going to be very variable, depending on what artists you like. REM, Nine Inch Nails, Slowdive, Björk, Metallica and Iggy Pop are the only ones I've listened to recently. Although I've just downloaded a couple more as I was scrolling through the list here!
-Very Bad Wizards - Dystopias, The Absurd, Killer robots and there are a couple with Sam Harris which were good. I haven't listened to as many of these as I should though.
That's gold, thanks for taking the time to recommend individual episodes. Will note this and go through it in the coming weeks.

And, very quickly, just a couple which stand out from your list:

-Tim Ferriss - Rick Rubin, Jocko Willink, Ray Dalio, Stewart Copeland, Arnold Schwarznegger, Josh Waitzkin
-Philosophize This - Sartre & Camus, Hegel's God, Descartes, Leibniz, Montaigne. But listen to them all, really. (*needs more stoicism though...)
Agreed on most of those. The recent one with Drew Houston on Ferriss was good, Naval Ravikant on there was also brilliant. Rick Rubin sticks out, as does Waitzkin. I've listened to them all, though the older ones were better than the latest ones I thought.

Philosophize This is fantastic, I haven't got them all down yet but many. It's great to see a philosopher in modern day doing well teaching philosophy. It is a far underpaid and underrated field to study and think about. More stoic stuff would be fantastic.

Oh, and I haven't tried it but I have had people recommend Listen Notes to me. Not sure if it's anything like you're attempting?
OK for now; cheers.
I haven't heard of it, noted. It doesn't appear to be the same idea, but I'm impressed by that search engine. My idea is to have a big database like ListenNotes, but then enable you to rate, comment, and review podcasts, and also see a feed of what your friends are adding, rating and reviewing. I want to know what podcasts and episodes my friends like so I can listen to the good ones, just as I use Goodreads for books.
 

stoic

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That seems like a great idea. I don't have any standout way of finding new podcasts, it's often as not from going through the "best of year" reviews. That, and picking them up ad hoc from interviews when someone mentions another podcast they or their guest have been on. I'm always worrying about getting into an echo chamber when that happens, though; there are just soooo many instances of Harris/Rogan/Rubin etc. going on each others' podcasts and sharing guests. Even though I like them all it can get a bit much. I guess there just aren't enough people yet doing what they're doing?

A couple of other podcasts I haven't fully got into yet but you might like: Star Talk Radio with Neil Degrasse Tyson, and On Being. Maybe I just need someone recommending the best episodes?! I also got stuck on the History of Rome after about thirty episodes (they're quite short!), but I was enjoying it up to that point; more like an audiobook than a podcast I guess.

I've just downloaded Drew Houston for my commute tomorrow. Any other philosophy ones worth a listen? Philosophize This really does stand out as being uniquely brilliant and yes it's great to see him doing well.
 

AvGalen

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Lastly, anyone else speed their podcast player up to shoehorn more content into their brain faster? I listen to everything at 1.5x, and it's surprising how quickly you get used to it. (*doesn't work for Song Exploder)
Almost everyone I know speeds up podcasts by 1.5x. I always use 2x, for podcasts and youtube as well.
 

pjk

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That seems like a great idea. I don't have any standout way of finding new podcasts, it's often as not from going through the "best of year" reviews. That, and picking them up ad hoc from interviews when someone mentions another podcast they or their guest have been on. I'm always worrying about getting into an echo chamber when that happens, though; there are just soooo many instances of Harris/Rogan/Rubin etc. going on each others' podcasts and sharing guests. Even though I like them all it can get a bit much. I guess there just aren't enough people yet doing what they're doing?
Totally, a lot of these guys have repeats. If the questions are unique and the guest is interesting, great. Micheal Pollan, for example, I listened to on Ferriss and Waking Up and enjoyed both as they both had different angles but about the same book.

A couple of other podcasts I haven't fully got into yet but you might like: Star Talk Radio with Neil Degrasse Tyson, and On Being. Maybe I just need someone recommending the best episodes?! I also got stuck on the History of Rome after about thirty episodes (they're quite short!), but I was enjoying it up to that point; more like an audiobook than a podcast I guess.
Star Talk Radio I've noted after seeing Tyson on his star talk TV show on Netflix. On Being I've heard of but yet to listen to. It's overwhelming the amount of great podcasts and great books there are out there. Hence why something like Goodreads but for podcasts would be so useful. It's easier said than done to build though, but with ListenNotes API it would make it a lot more useful.

I've just downloaded Drew Houston for my commute tomorrow. Any other philosophy ones worth a listen? Philosophize This really does stand out as being uniquely brilliant and yes it's great to see him doing well.
Philosophize This and Waking Up are the two main ones for philosophy for me (I can list individual episodes if you want). Other suggestions not philosophy related: The Quantified Body, Common Sense with Dan Carlin, Conversations with Tyler Cowen (mentioned before but gold), The Ezra Klein Show, and the "Peter Attia Dive".
 

ajax_711

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  • Philosophize This
  • The Official Podcast (Comedy podcast hosted by Cr1tikal , Andrew, Kaya and Jackson) [DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED]
  • Hardcore History by Dan Carlin
  • Let's not Meet by Andrew Tate
  • Lore by Aaron Mankhe
  • Serial Killers by Parcast
 
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pjk

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  • Philosophize This
  • The Official Podcast (Comedy podcast hosted by Cr1tikal , Andrew, Kaya and Jackson) [DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED]
  • Hardcore History by Dan Carlin
  • Let's not Meet by Andrew Tate
  • Lore by Aaron Mankhe
  • Serial Killers by Parcast
Looks like similar podcast recommendations from above. What are your favorite Hardcore History and Philosophize This episodes? I'll checkout "The Official Podcast" soon.
 

ajax_711

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Looks like similar podcast recommendations from above. What are your favorite Hardcore History and Philosophize This episodes? I'll checkout "The Official Podcast" soon.
The Armageddon stuff in Hardcore History was pretty good. In Philosophize This, I recommend you to go from start instead of starting from a interesting episode. My favorite episodes are the Rousseau and Immanuel Kant episodes
 
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